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Black Hole Thermodynamics and the Tunnelling Method for Particle Emission

dc.contributor.authorKerner, Ryan
dc.date.accessioned2008-08-29T19:56:51Z
dc.date.available2008-08-29T19:56:51Z
dc.date.issued2008-08-29T19:56:51Z
dc.date.submitted2008
dc.description.abstractThe semi-classical black hole tunnelling method is a useful technique to calculate black hole temperature and understand black hole thermodynamics. I will investigate the black hole tunnelling method in detail. I will compare two different approaches used to calculate black hole tunnelling. The tunnelling method can be applied to a broad range of spacetimes and I will show this explicitly in order to demonstrate the robustness of the tunnelling technique. In particular, I will apply the tunnelling method to spacetimes including: Rindler (the method can recover the Unruh temperature), and more general spacetimes (such as Kerr-Newman and Taub-NUT). I will also discuss the 5d Kerr-Gödel spacetimes in detail (while showing a previous unobserved property of these spaces). Once the parameter space of Kerr-Gödel is understood in detail, I will show how the tunnelling method can also be successfully applied to the Kerr-Gödel black hole. Finally, the key result of my thesis involves extending the tunnelling method to model fermion emission. The previous tunnelling calculations all involved the emission of scalar particles. I will model the emission of spin-1/2 fermions from various spacetimes including the Rindler spacetime and general non-rotating black holes. I will also model the emission of charged spin-1/2 fermions from the Kerr-Newman spacetime to show that the method is also applicable to rotating spacetimes. In all these cases I show that the correct Hawking temperature (Unruh temperature in the case of Rindler) is recovered for spin-1/2 fermion emission. Although this final result is not surprising, it is an important result because it confirms that Dirac particles will radiate from the black hole at the same temperature as scalar particles. It has always been assumed that this is the case but there is very little literature involving fermion radiation of black holes. So the results of my calculations are twofold, I demonstrate that Dirac particles are emitted at the same temperature as scalar particles from a black hole and it shows how robust the semi-classical tunnelling technique is.en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/3940
dc.language.isoenen
dc.pendingfalseen
dc.publisherUniversity of Waterlooen
dc.subjectHawkingen
dc.subjectBlack Holeen
dc.subjectradiationen
dc.subjectfermionen
dc.subjecttunnellingen
dc.subjectWKB approximationen
dc.subjectthermodynamicsen
dc.subjectKerr-Newmanen
dc.subjectKerr-Gödelen
dc.subjectTaub-NUTen
dc.subjectDiracen
dc.subject.programPhysicsen
dc.titleBlack Hole Thermodynamics and the Tunnelling Method for Particle Emissionen
dc.typeDoctoral Thesisen
uws-etd.degreeDoctor of Philosophyen
uws-etd.degree.departmentPhysics and Astronomyen
uws.peerReviewStatusUnrevieweden
uws.scholarLevelGraduateen
uws.typeOfResourceTexten

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